We are now in a place called Rangiora just north of Christchurch, working on a small 'lifestyle block'. Its about 20 acres but feels like about 200! Thew views are amazing and the sunsets are really beautiful too. The couple who own the place are nice and we are staying in the house which is good in the cold weather! Although the thermals are out now too!
The lifestyle here isnt quite as rough as it was on the farm but its still really hard work!We have a few luxuries here like our own ensuite and a pooh hoover for cleaning up llama poohs.....oh yes, no spade and barrow here!phew! I've been doing loads of work in the garden along with helping rich do some building stuff - built a front for the llama shed, built a door and hatch for the chicken house and put up a llama pen in a barn. Rich gets all the credit for the work, of course! - im used to living in his shadow by now. He does make the point of telling people that i did work too but it generally falls on deaf ears, or they just think that i held the nails and made tea when he was thirsty! We have had a 360 digger the last few days which i got to use - how exciting! I got to dig up heaps of hardcore and load it into barrows for the floor of the llama barn. Rich has also used it to do a heap of groundwork and for widening out a stream. Ive done loads of digging in the rose garden too. The beds are infested with some kind of persistent grass-like weed which our hosts reckon we (i, alone) can get rid of by digging it all up, over the next week, or so.................and there go the pigs with wings.
Because we are so far from anywhere and don't have a car we havent really been able to do anything after work (apart from watch Gordon Ramsey, of course!). We walked to the local pub in a village called Sefton on Sunday for our dinner. Bizarrely the meal menu only consisted of burger and chips and nuggets and chips, so we chose the $7 jugs of beer.
Apparently we will be helping train the llamas over the next week or so..........
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